For over a decade, screening in Mental Health has been all about the PHQ-9. It’s a nine item depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire, which was adapted from PRIME MD TODAY®, developed by Drs. Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B.W. Williams, Kurt Kroenke, and colleagues with an educational grant from Pfizer Inc. in 2002.

The PHQ-9 can be a powerful tool to assist clinicians with diagnosing depression and monitoring treatment response. The nine items of the PHQ-9 are based directly on the nine diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Fourth Edition). This can help track a patient’s overall depression severity as well as the specific symptoms that are improving or not with treatment.

But there’s also Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder and PTSD, and often these overlap with Depression, and each other, for a given patient. So consider the M3, from Bethesda, Maryland-based M-3 Information, LLC–

The 3 Minute Test for Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder and PTSD

These are serious conditions that affect, not only your quality of life, but your physical health.

Did you know that having a mood disorder may increase your heart attack risk and decrease your ability to recover from other illnesses like stroke, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer?

Your M3 score is a number that will help you and your doctor understand if you have a treatable mood disorder, like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or post traumatic stress disorder. You can even monitor your score to see how your mental health is changing over time.

What’s my M3? Knowing can help you take control of your mental health, and you can discover yours in about three minutes with our free, confidential test.

M3 Information has a companion offering that faces Providers, called M3 Clinician.

Given the rise of web and mobile, there are ample opportunities for forward-thinking Providers to screen patients longitudinally wherever Patients are, to enable better outcomes.